Robert G. Bonitz

Mars Exploration Rover surface operations: driving spirit at Gusev Crater

Spirit is one of two rovers that landed on Mars in January 2004 as part of NASAs Mars Exploration Rover mission. As of July 2005, Spirit has traveled over 4.5 kilometers across the Martian surface while investigating rocks and soils, digging trenches to examine subsurface materials, and climbing hills to reach outcrops of bedrock. Originally designed to last 90 sols (Martian days), Spirit has survived over 500 sols of operation and continues to explore. During the mission, we achieved increases in efficiency, accuracy, and traverse capability through increasingly complex command sequences, growing experience, and updates to the on-board and ground-based software. Safe and precise mobility on slopes and in the presence of obstacles has been a primary factor in development of new software and techniques.

Mars Exploration Rover surface operations: driving opportunity at Meridiani Planum

Since landing on the Meridiani Planum region of Mars in January 2004, the Mars exploration rover (MER) vehicle named Opportunity has been sending back pictures taken from several different craters that would provide evidence that the region did indeed have a watery past. This paper details the experience of driving Opportunity through this alien landscape during its first 400 days on Mars, from the point of view of the other rover planners, the people who tell the rover where to drive and how to use its robotic arm

The Mars Exploration Rover instrument positioning system

During Mars Exploration Rover (MER) surface operations, the scientific data gathered by the in situ instrument suite has been invaluable with respect to the discovery of a significant water history at Meridiani Planum and the hint of water processes at work in Gusev Crater. Specifically, the ability to perform precision manipulation from a mobile platform (i.e., mobile manipulation) has been a critical part of the successful operation of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. As such, this paper describes the MER instrument positioning system that allows the in situ instruments to operate and collect their important science data using a robust, dexterous robotic arm combined with visual target selection and autonomous software functions.

Internet-based operations for the Mars Polar Lander mission

The Mars Polar Lander (MPL) mission was the first planetary mission to use Internet-based distributed ground operations where scientists and engineers collaborate in daily mission operations from multiple geographically distributed locations via the Internet. This paper describes the operations system, the Web interface for telescience (WITS), which was used by the MPL mission for Internet-based operations. WITS was used for generating command sequences for the landers robotic arm and robotic arm camera, and as a secondary tool for sequence generation for the stereo camera on the lander. WITS was also used as a public outreach tool. Results are shown from the January 2000 field test in Death Valley, California.

Calibrating a multi-manipulator robotic system

A simple, but effective, method of calibrating a multimanipulator robotic system is introduced. The algorithm uses precisely machined calibration plates which are inexpensive to manufacture and require no measuring instrumentation. The method is tested on a dual-arm system which resulted in an order of magnitude reduction in the pose error. Coordinated dual-arm manipulation experiments are conducted using the calibrated kinematic model to validate the usefulness of the calibration process.

Robotic arm in-situ operations for the Mars Exploration Rovers surface mission

This paper describes the operations of the 5 degree-of-freedom instrument deployment device (IDD), a dexterous robotic manipulator on the Mars Exploration Rovers, spirit and opportunity. The unprecedented flawless operations of the IDD enabled precise and reliable placement of at least 3 in situ instruments in sequential order on a designated target position on Martian rock/soil any time during the Martian diurnal cycle (day or night). These placements demonstrated a repeatability of /spl sim/1 mm in position and /spl sim/1 degree in orientation. This operations breakthrough is underappreciated, but it alone enabled the scientist to characterize a wide range of rocks and soils in a timely manner in the hunt for geological clues that revealed that the planet was once rich in water. In this paper we describe the IDD planning and command sequence generation process used to place and hold in situ instruments directly against rock and soil targets of interest within the IDD work volume.

Mars exploration rover surface operations: driving opportunity at Meridiani Planum

Since landing on the Meridiani Planum region of Mars in January 2004, the Mars exploration rover (MER) vehicle named Opportunity has been sending back pictures taken from several different craters that would provide evidence that the region did indeed have a watery past. This paper details the experience of driving Opportunity through this alien landscape during its first 400 days on Mars, from the point of view of the other rover planners, the people who tell the rover where to drive and how to use its robotic arm

Mobile manipulation for the Mars exploration rover - a dexterous and robust instrument positioning system

This article has described in detail the Mars exploration rovers instrument positioning system and the use of this subsystem to carryout in situ operations of the Martian surface and subsurface. All told, the instrument deployment device (IDD) has served as an exceptional robotic mechanism for performing robust and reliable in situ science. The ability to carry out high precision mobile manipulation functions provided by the rover and the IDD has been critical to gaining a fundamental understanding of the water processes at work at both the Spirit and Opportunity landing sites. As such, the MERs IPS has paved the way for the use of future robotic devices that advance NASAs capabilities in autonomous manipulation, sample acquisition, and in situ science investigations

The Mars Surveyor '01 Rover and Robotic Arm

The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander will carry with it both a Robotic Arm and Rover to support various science and technology experiments. The Marie Curie Rover, the twin sister to Sojourner Truth, is expected to explore the surface of Mars in early 2002. Scientific investigations to determine the elemental composition of surface rocks and soil using the Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will be conducted along with several technology experiments including the Mars Experiment on Electrostatic Charging (MEEC) and the Wheel Abrasion Experiment (WAE). The Rover will follow uplinked operational sequences each day, but will be capable of autonomous reactions to the unpredictable features of the Martian environment. The Mars Surveyor 2001 Robotic Arm will perform rover deployment, and support various positioning digging, and sample acquiring functions for MECA (Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment) and Mossbauer Spectrometer experiments. The Robotic Arm will also collect its own sensor data for engineering data analysis. The Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) mounted on the forearm of the Robotic Arm will capture various images with a wide range of focal length adjustment during scientific experiments and rover deployment.

The brush wheel sampler — A sampling device for small-body touch-and-go missions

The recent planetary science decadal survey identified sample return from a comet as a major goal of the study of primitive solar system bodies. The survey identified a comet surface sample return mission as one of the candidates for a New Frontiers class mission. A touch-and-go (TAG) mission architecture where the spacecraft would maneuver close to the small body surface, a sampling device on the end of a robotic arm would acquire the sample in a few seconds, and then the spacecraft would retreat from the small body is a suitable architecture to achieve the candidate mission objectives. The brush wheel sampler (BWS) has been shown to be an effective sampling device for possible TAG missions to small bodies. This paper describes the technology development and test results of the BWS over the past several years.